The drive will be a part of Western Digital’s Blue series of hard drives, and the 5mm drive is able to be so thin because of a tiny edge connector that combines both power and the SATA transfer interface, which leaves more room for the hardware to do its thing. Although, with its 5mm form factor, everything is squeezed in there rather tightly.
This marks the return of Western Digital back into the full production process. After the 2011 tsunami and earthquake over in Asia, Western Digital and other component manufacturers suffered setbacks and were unable to produce hard drives temporarily. However, the company got back on track last year, and took over the top spot in the hard drive market with $4.8 billion in revenue and 71 million hard drives produced during Q4 2012.
While the UltraSlim is definitely something to admire, this isn’t the first 5mm drive we’ve seen. A*STAR unveiled their own 5mm hybrid drive last year, and it packs in a whole 1TB of storage. Then again, the company has yet to ship the new drive, so Western Digital is certainly the first out of the gate it seems.
Western Digital Blue Ultra-Slim Hard Drive 5mm Features
New ultra-slim design.
Accomplishing unprecedented feats in engineering at only 5 mm thin, these drives enable a world of possibilities and applications. (MPCK models)
Massive capacity in a slim world.
WD Blue 7mm slim drives have revolutionized the mobile hard drive by combining enterprise-grade craftsmanship with a massive 1 TB capacity, packed into a slim 7mm form factor.
WD quality.
Built to the highest standards of quality and reliability, these drives offer the features and capacity ideal for your everyday computing needs.
Massive engineering in an ultra-slim world.
Feather weight in a heavy weight class.
The WD Blue ultra-slim hard drive is 36 percent lighter than standard mobile hard drives, weighing in at just 74 grams, (2.61 ounces). Our new intelligent micro PCBA also helps reduce drive mass for 47 percent less total volume without compromising mobility requirements, making WD Blue as light as a feather!
Best-in-class acoustics.
WD's exclusive noise reducing technologies make the WD Blue 5 mm ultra-slim hard drive whisper quiet. At merely 15 decibels while idle and 17 decibels during seek operations on average, this drive is over 10 percent quieter than the closest competitor drive in its class.
State of the art, from the start.
An ultra-slim design that does not compromise, WD Blue was designed with stronger aluminum materials and a harder Tied-Shaft motor which increases drive pinch strength as much as 30 percent. These advanced engineering improvements allow for a more rigid structure without degrading performance or increasing power consumption.
WD Blue ultra-slim has also revolutionized the mobile hard drive with influences of enterprise-grade craftsmanship, featuring a new superior grade, high performance Dual Stage Actuator. Our state-of-the-art technology helps to reduce vibrations and acoustics that are emitted from within your system, increasing drive reliability and adds value by helping protect your investment.
Sealed to perfection.
Achieving a 5 mm profile with 47 percent less volume required a wide range of innovations, from the thermosphere down to protons and electrons. We introduced new manufacturing techniques and pioneered capabilities only thought previously as unimaginable. Our engineers pushed into new boundaries and developed a drive so advanced, it's reflection is simply remarkable. This combination of unique challenges allowed WD to create a design so slim, so compact, that it is sealed to perfection.
Low power consumption.
State-of-the-art seeking algorithms and advanced power management features ensure low power consumption and long battery life.
Quiet.
In a notebook drive, silence is golden. WD's exclusive noise reducing technologies yield one of the quietest 2.5-inch hard drives on the market.
Upgrading your drive is easy.
WD Acronis True Image, available as a free download on the WD Support site, enables you to copy all your data to a new drive so you don't have to reinstall your operating system to get all the benefits of a new drive.
NoTouch Ramp Load technology.
The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection in transit.
Available SATA 6 Gb/s interface.
The SATA 6 Gb/s interface provides greater flexibility for use with the latest operating systems as well as backwards compatibility to legacy systems with SATA 3 Gb/s requirements. (xPVX models only).
Compatible.
Our latest generation of 7 mm 2.5-inch mobile drives is designed for thin and light mobile applications, and is also compatible with most standard 9.5 mm bays. (LPVX models).
The WD advantage.
WD puts our products through extensive Functional Integrity Testing (F.I.T) prior to any product launch. This testing ensures our products consistently meet the highest quality and reliability standards of the WD brand. WD also has a detailed Knowledge Base with more than 1,000 helpful articles as well as helpful software and utilities. Our customer support lines have longer operational hours to ensure you get the help you need when you need it. Our toll-free customer support lines are here to help or you can access our WD Support site for additional details.
Specifications
